


Moving On

by cageddove



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 09:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6279778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cageddove/pseuds/cageddove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I really want Aurora and Mulan to reunite this season (5B), and this is one way I'd like it to go.</p><p>To be able to move on with her feelings for Ruby, Mulan must confront her lingering feelings for Aurora.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving On

Mulan stood with her back against the wall, cursing herself for her cowardice. She quickly peered around the corner, and Aurora was still across the street, pushing her baby in a stroller. It had been a long time since they had last met, but Aurora’s smile lit up her face like sunshine, exactly as she remembered.

“Damn it,” Mulan whispered. 

It was that kind of unhelpful thought that had made her put off stopping by Aurora and Phillip’s house even though she’d been in Storybrooke for a week already. 

The phone in her pocket buzzed, and she jumped. Ruby had given her the strange object a few days before so they could communicate, but she still hadn’t gotten used to it. The message read: 

“Long line at Granny’s?? As her granddaughter, I’m insulted she’d make you wait so long. Hurry up and come back to meeeee”

Mulan felt a fluttery feeling in her stomach, the same kind she got whenever she was caught in Ruby’s orbit. Buoyancy had become a state of being for her. Whenever she worried that she was mistaking Ruby’s attention for something it wasn’t, she’d get a text or a glance or a light brush against her arm, and the worry floated away like dandelion wishes. 

Mulan glanced around the corner again and saw that Aurora was gone. The fluttery feeling became an ache in her chest, and she knew buoyancy didn’t stand a chance unless she could set that ache aside somewhere deep inside herself. 

She sent Ruby a text: “Sorry, coffee is going to have to wait. I ran into an old friend. I promise I’ll be back soon.”

 

Aurora’s house was quaint and had a little garden of roses in the front. Storybrooke was small like a fishtank, so the other day when Mulan had gone exploring, she stumbled upon the house and quickly backtracked before someone saw her. 

After taking a deep breath, Mulan knocked on the door. 

“Just a minute!” she heard Aurora call, and it startled her to hear how close she sounded. There was only a wooden door and a few heartbeats between them.

The door swung open, and Aurora’s face was full of delight. She threw her arms around Mulan’s neck and said, “I’m so happy to see you.”

Mulan hesitantly hugged her back, and couldn’t help but grin.

Aurora pulled away. “I heard you were in Storybrooke! I was wondering when you were going to pay a visit. Come in, I just finished feeding the baby.”

They stepped inside, and as they walked through the hallway, Aurora kept looking back over her shoulder to smile at Mulan, as if making sure she was really there. 

“Unfortunately Phillip’s not home, but you can meet baby Phillip.”

Before she could register anything, Mulan was holding Aurora’s baby in her arms. He was large and warm, with long eyelashes. 

“He’s beautiful.” 

“Like his father,” Aurora said.

“Like his mother,” Mulan added before thinking about it. 

“You’re just saying that,” she replied with a laugh.

Mulan smiled at the baby, but holding him made her feel more distant to Aurora, and she felt a little dizzy. 

“So,” Aurora said, “What about you? What have you been up to?”

“Traveling, mostly. I hope Phillip’s doing well?” she asked, trying to change the subject so she didn’t accidentally reveal that she had spent the last few months pining after her.

“Yes, he’s been struggling to find a job he likes. ‘Prince’ isn’t actually worth much on a resume. So what about your love life, huh? Anyone capture your interest?” 

Mulan felt her face do everything but remain passive, and felt betrayed by her own body.

Aurora smiled and said, “There is! Who is it? Maybe one of the merry men worth marrying?”

“Oh definitely not,” she said with a laugh. When she looked up to Aurora’s warm and open face looking expectantly at her, she felt the words just come right out. “I might have feelings for someone new.”

“That’s so exciting! Are you going to do something about it?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered truthfully. “I’m afraid of getting hurt again.”

“Again?” Aurora prodded. 

Her words were spilling out as if she were full of wine. “I just know it’s painful to love someone who doesn’t love you back, and I don’t know if I’m ready to find out if it’s reciprocated. But then again, last time I waited too long to tell-” 

She stopped herself, furtively glanced at Aurora, and then looked down at the baby. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aurora tilt her head in confusion. Even though every fiber of Mulan’s body was telling her to look up and into her eyes, she couldn’t do it. 

Lucky for her, at that moment the baby smiled at her, and so she smiled back, feeling like it was looking out for her. After a moment, she looked at Aurora again and was taken aback. “What is it?” she asked when she saw that the perplexity on Aurora’s face had melted into something softer, something like understanding. After all of this time, it had finally dawned on her.

Mulan felt her whole body go still, and worried that the slightest movement would mean time would have to pass; that the end of the moment would come, and she would sink into a feeling of vulnerability. She could handle being tackled to the ground or getting beat in a fight, but revealing that she had emotional weak spots was a different kind of embarrassing. 

To Mulan’s surprise, Aurora took the baby from her arms and set him in his crib. Mulan sat with empty hands. 

Aurora sat back down across from her and took Mulan’s hands to hold, then she squeezed one hand and said, “I’m sorry you got hurt.”

Mulan’s mind was telling her to look away, but Aurora’s eyes kept her entranced. She was afraid her heartbeat would echo through the room.

“Anyone would be lucky to deserve you,” Aurora continued. “Don’t let me get in the way of that.” 

Mulan smiled shyly, looking down at their hands. Relief surged through her, and when she looked back at Aurora, who glowing with affection, the ache in her chest dulled. She thought of Ruby waiting for her, and felt ready to go.


End file.
